Above: Caesar (Andy Serkis) leads the revolution in Mr. Reeves' "Dawn"
Anyone else find it weird that “Planet
of the Apes” has become an icon of science-fiction cinema? Because the original movie didn’t have much
staying power. Yes, it’s a good film,
but it lacks the qualities that made other sci-fi movies staples of the
genre—the progressive ideology of “Star Trek,” the reckless fun of “Star Wars,”
the cerebral experimentation of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” or the immediate
cultural relevance of “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
Twice, the franchise been rebooted,
starting with 2001’s “Planet of the Apes” (a.k.a. “Mark Wahlberg Talks to
Animals: The Movie”) (a.k.a. “Marky Mark and the Monkey Bunch”), a drab,
bloated misfire that spent more time riding the coattails of its predecessor
than creating something new. The second
attempt, however, was more successful. 2011’s
prequel “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” grounded the origin of chimp
revolutionary Caesar in the 21st Century and was actually really good—the film
was both smart enough to take its material seriously and clever enough to have
fun with it. It was also fueled by a
riveting lead performance from Andy Serkis as Caesar. Don’t believe what the press for “Rise” said;
despite James Franco getting star billing, the movie was owned by Mr. Serkis,
who asserted his dominance as the Maestro of Mo-Cap.
The latest installment in the
franchise, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” realizes this and leaves most of
the film in Caesar’s animated hands. Ten
years after the events of “Rise,” Caesar and his tribe of intelligent apes are
living in a stable society in the San Francisco Redwoods. By this point, most of humanity has been wiped
out by a rampant retrovirus, but a few survivors living in the city are hoping
to make use of a run-down hydroelectric dam in Caesar’s territory. Caesar allows them to fix it up, but mistrust
is present on both sides, making it clear that it’ll only take the right spark
to ignite a genocidal war.
What’s surprising about “Dawn” is how
much pathos it rings out of the ape characters and their interactions. The good folks at Weta Digital still make some
of the most convincing CGI in the business and the actors, spearheaded by Mr.
Serkis, give fantastic performances that (ironically) humanize the apes (you
almost forget that you’re watching the emotional turmoil of lines of code made
to look like chimpanzees).
That’s not to say that the human
characters are left out—they’re brought movingly to life by actors like Jason
Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. And it certainly helps that the film’s script
(by Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver) takes pains to emphasize the
symmetries between the apes and the humans. Yes, such attempts feel heavy-handed at times,
but they still make the story and characters more engaging.
Like its predecessor, the script for
“Dawn” is surprisingly smart for a movie about an armed simian uprising. “Rise” was about a revolution spurred by the
over-ambition and irresponsibility of man; “Dawn” is about how firebrands like
Caesar are more complex and nuanced than history might give them credit for
being (with the ape leader’s struggle to forge peace with humanity and placate
his restless people at the center of the film).
This is making the movie sound really
dry, isn’t it? Hurm…did I mention the
apes with machine guns? Because there’s
a whole lot of that too. Indeed, film’s
inevitable war is one of actions over words, with human vs. ape gunfights (I
just really typed that sentence, didn’t I?) making up a good portion of the
movie’s second half.
Surprisingly, I couldn’t get onboard
with these scenes as much as you might expect. Much as I love science-fiction works that
embrace the ridiculousness of their own conceits, I found myself watching a
chimpanzee riding a horse through a wall of flames while dual-wielding machine
guns and thinking, “This is a bit silly, isn’t it?” If you can groove to such moments, more power
to you. But I was more engaged by the
climactic battle of blunt instruments and raw strength in “Rise.”
Thus, in the end, “Dawn of the Planet
of the Apes” doesn’t come together as strongly as its predecessor. But it’s still a fine movie anchored by
stunning effects, terrific acting, and (enjoyably) ludicrous action. If you’re in the market for an engaging,
smart, and fun blockbuster, I highly recommend it.
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